Alpha Blue Ocean: An Alternative Investment Firm

Pierre Vannineuse is the Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Blue Ocean, an international alternative investment firm with headquarters in London. Pierre is leading all of their investment strategies and represents the company on all fronts.

Pierre’s idea was to create an innovative financing philosophy which aims at switching from direct market risk toward model risk, while guaranteeing the adequate financing of a given company. Thanks to this, he was able to actively implement billions of dollars in direct and optional commitments for international businesses and projects. We at CEO Today spoke with Pierre about how Alpha Blue Ocean started, an insight into the company’s growth, and the state of investment market today.

What led you to found Alpha Blue Ocean? How has it developed since its inception?

When I first started working in the industry, I was quick to realize how companies with huge potential struggle to find the financial support they need to accomplish their missions. This is simply because many investors are not willing to take on risks and they fail to see that they are losing by not investing.

My drive was and still is to find financial instruments that help both the company and shareholders of small and mid-cap business, as I believe that they are the future of our economy.

Alpha Blue Ocean is rapidly growing, and we have almost reached the mark of €2 billion in commitments and over €300,000 million in deployed commitments. We now have a team of 16 young and ambitious professionals to support us in our mission.

What are the benefits of using an alternative investment firm such as Alpha Blue Ocean (ABO) compared to a traditional one?

An alternative investment model such as ours gives companies flexibility, which they miss with a traditional model. The company is in full control of the funds, we provide the security and commitment to finance the business within the agreed period; regardless of the market conditions.

Saying that, although we may commit to an amount it’s then up to the company whether to take advantage of it or not, they are free to stop the cash flow at any point.

Finally, we empower management teams with guaranteed funding on tap that allows companies to receive cash up-front with a delayed and potentially lower dilution ratio depending on the results they deliver post cash-in.

What procedures do you have in place to assess which businesses warrant your support and financing?

The first step is to analyse a potential situation and then run this through a multi-factor scoring model.

From there, initial swift due diligence confirms the qualified results with a human approach. Firstly, we need to be sure that the potential company is the right fit for us based on our investment policies and values.

We must always be sure that the companies we are working with are only operating in good faith and to the highest ethical standards.

An alternative investment model such as ours gives companies flexibility, which they miss with a traditional model.

How would you describe the current investment market? Have there been any recent trends that you’ve noticed?

We are seeing an increasing appetite for investments in the cannabis industries as the regulations are changing in Europe, a trend we should look out for.

We also see that BioTech companies have started getting more funding at earlier stages in comparison to five to ten years ago.

Volatility is also trending higher, which makes trading more exciting, although we have to stay ever more attentive: but that’s a conversation for a whole a new article!

Have you handled any exciting projects recently that you could tell us about?

There have been many exciting projects, and in fact, we are working on something top secret as we speak, and we are very much looking forward to making a big announcement that will change the game.

Some of our portfolio companies prefer to stay private, which we respect and therefore we’re not able to speak on that—however, I can guarantee you that most of the companies and management teams we are working with are extraordinary, and they deserve our full support and trust.

We must always be sure that the companies we are working with are only operating in good faith and to the highest ethical standards.

As CEO, how do you foster growth at ABO and maintain the company’s vision?

To be very honest, this comes very naturally to us. We have accomplished many things within one year that we thought would take us three to five years.

We just love what we do and with every step we take, our vision becomes bigger and better.

How do you hope that ABO will develop in the year ahead and beyond?

We are working on deploying our financial instruments in other markets so that we can support more companies on their way to bigger achievements.

Currently, we are developing our own back, middle and front office integrated platform which will allow us to work even more efficiently and better satisfy the needs of our portfolio companies.

Each milestone we have reached so far allowed us to push further and helped in setting new goals. This is exactly how we are moving forward and why we are successful at what we do.

I am very proud of ABO and the team, and not just because of our achievements, but because every project is treated with the same respect and care.

We do not see any difference between a deal that is worth €1 million or €1 billion, simply because we build the relationship and trust first!